HOW TO SURVIVE NEATLY AT ISI ACADEMICS (neatly)?

In the rigourous enviroment and dynamic lifestyle at ISI, how can one target to achieve academic success, and why is it important. Is ISI / CMI even meant for you?

Introduction

ISI is a research-based institute unlike typical engineering colleges, which many students do not realize early on. Everything you learn here is backed by rigorous and pure mathematics, ensuring you understand what and why things happen. While some students find it heavenly, others, who aren’t keen on core mathematics, struggle to grasp these concepts. This immediately reflects on their academics and scores.

If you have checked the General Information, Rules and Regulations of ISI, you must have seen the passing criteria and promotion eligibility. While it seems to be an easy task, considering that most students who come to ISI are smart and scored well during their school days, it becomes difficult to score 75% or even 60% for many students.

In the brochure, you will find the importance of scoring above 60% and the circumstances you may face if you score less than 35% in a subject. “Less than 35%, that’s easy!” might be the reaction of many newcomers, but believe me, here at ISI, you will find many people going through this, which may include:

• Back-paper examination in some subjects due to scoring less than 35%.
• Stipend halved or cut off due to less than 45% composite score or less than 75% attendance.
• Not eligible for direct admission to M.Stat. and not getting B.Stat. Hons. degree due to more than six back-paper examinations or poor academic scores.
• Repeating a year for not clearing back-paper examinations in at least one subject.
• Discontinuing a program having a composite score less than 35% in a year (which might be the worst case).

My Case

I got admission to ISI B.Stat. in 2023. You can read about how I got into ISI in my drop year from this post. From the start of semester 1, I got distracted by having a lot of free time and the freedom of living alone in the hostel. I knew Python from my class 11 and 12, so Introduction to Programming and Data Structures was going well. Similarly, Statistics was also fine since the teacher was good and focused on practical aspects. However, all the other subjects were quite boring for me as I was not fond of rigorous mathematics. Because of this, I did not devote time to those subjects and skipped classes, leading to poor scores in the semester examination, resulting in a little less than 60%, causing my stipend to be halved.

At the start of the second semester, I was a bit more serious and decided to take things into hand to actually produce results. But as the subjects became more mathematics-inclined, I lost my enthusiasm and got distracted again, spending my time watching movies, YouTube, and playing table tennis. Also there was a group project in the Statistical Methods Course, which I was too involved into and end-up doing it almost solo since I found it interesting and also I learned a lot of things during the process. I studied just a few days before exams and ended up getting compulsory back-papers in two subjects. I was sure I would clear those back-paper exams, but even during the study period before the exams, I didn’t give my 100% and ended up failing both exams. Well the reasons for this may be discussed in future, the conclusion is that, I had to repeat the first year while my friends got promoted to the second year.

Here were my Grades in the first year of B.Stat ISI:

How to survive at ISI?

So, while having fun, participating in extracurricular activities, and enhancing your skills, keeping academics clean and nice is also crucial if you are a student at ISI. Here, I am sharing my personal experience on how to survive at ISI. Although you might not consider me a responsible person to answer such a question due to my past, you should know that I am most qualified to tell this, having actually experienced these situations.

Attending Classes

• Focus on understanding rather than writing notes (as notes are available, and there are books and materials).
• Try to grasp the crux in class.
• Maintain 75% attendance (you can skip classes in which you are confident that there is nothing much relevant or productive happening, or when you think you have something more relevant to do, but ensure you cover the class material within the 3-day criteria).

Notes

• Since notes are available, making your own notes (especially when exams are coming) requires too much time and writing effort, which is unnecessary.
• Just revise the class notes (daily is advised) at least 3 days a week.
• For final exams revision, create a collection of notes for each subject on Microsoft OneNote or other note-taking applications like Notion, where only important and review-worthy material is pasted.

Assignments + PYQs

• Complete assignments as soon as they come up and write/get solutions for future revision purposes.
• PYQs should be solved during exam preparation only when required, like when the teacher hasn’t provided much material to solve or when you are already done with the material and still not confident.

Revision

• Utilize weekend holidays effectively, either academically for revision or assignment solutions or for learning/doing something important.
• If you keep up with the class, complete assignments on time, and revise through your notes at least every 3 days a week, then at the time of exams you just have to revise your one-page notes, assignments solutions, and do PYQs if necessary.

Exams

1. Mid-sem

The focus should be on maximizing marks. Since they are relatively easy due to less syllabus, try to get 30+ (70-75%) so you don’t have to worry about passing or stipend.

2. End-sem

The focus should be on maximizing marks to get an overall score of 60%+ at least and target more than 75%.

With this, we come to end. I hope you will find it usefull and follow the things told. You would like to check my other articles on ISI Preparation, ISI Interview Guide and NOTES, Problems and other important resources to follow.

Any suggestion is welcomed. Connect to me using about me section. Thank you !